13: Names In The Sand
by Wandering7Doctors
Summary: The Doctor decides to take her latest companion to land where the past is cherished. Memories are remembered and the greater truth of what it means to travel through time and space freely is revealed. (13th Doctor Adventures, Year 1, Part 4)
1. Visiting The Recent and Distant Past

"Okay, that's how it happened?"

"Yeah."

Max nodded, they were inside the Tardis and the Doctor had told her companion of the time she recently regenerated. A few of the memories were a bit hard to put together, meeting her first incarnation scrambled some details. But the ending… that would always be cherished. She remembered hearing the rules, the promise, and the freedom of being released into her current form.

"And… you were thrown out of the Tardis."

The Doctor blinked, that part of it wasn't exactly the highlight of the memory.

"Um, yeah, that's right… from about 40,000 feet from the ground."

She tried her best to ignore how Max stepped forward, drilling the Time Lord for an explanation with an interrogator's stare.

"Care to tell me how you're not a pancake?"

The Doctor's eye twitched, now _there_ was an experience she'd rather not try to remember ever again.

"I'm going to keep that one to myself, actually," the Doctor said. "Not exactly in the top ten list of times I've been thrown out of the Tardis."

Max turned her head back towards the doors, she clearly noticed they were heavily reinforced to not open if the ship malfunctioned.

 _Took me three bloody times to remember to get better locks. The next Me's better appreciate that._

"Okay," Max said with a shrug. "It's not my promise being broken."

"What's that?" The Doctor turned towards her companion.

There was no bitterness in Max's face, just annoyance.

"You said you wanted this to be a proper partnership, that demands trust. Meaning no secrets."

"Ah," the Time Lord murmured. "Ask me no questions and I tell you no lies, heard that once somewhere." The Doctor sighed, keeping promises was going to be harder than just following the code her 12th incarnation stated before the change. Max Lin didn't seem surprised that the Doctor would be shifty, that was worse than anything.

But the Time Lord had a plan.

She stepped away from the console and walked towards her companion. The younger woman made no attempt to step away out of fear, which was nice. Now the Doctor just had to make sure that small smidge of trust was proved worthwhile.

"Fine," the Doctor said. "Memories are tricky and the nastier bits are going to be forgotten occasionally for my own sanity, but there is something I can do for you, Max Lin."

"And what's that?" Max said in a challenging tone.

"I'm going to take you to the one place I've never brought anyone." the Doctor said with a grin.

The fortitude in Max's face wavered, two adventures had been enough to educate the young woman on the potential for chaos to pop on at any second.

"Don't worry," the Doctor said as she stepped backwards without taking her eyes off of Max. "This is not a place of danger." She ran her hand along the console's various keyboards and pressed buttons by instinct rather than sight. Max remembered the bit in the regeneration story of how a poor button press led to, and gripped the railing for dear life.

"What is it then?" Max said, trying to casually guide herself hand over hand towards the console while maintaining a constant grip in case history repeated itself. When they were inches apart, the Doctor answered her happily.

"Memory."

She then pulled the lever and they were on their way.


	2. To Be A Companion

The Tardis settled in time and space, Max was too preoccupied to notice that the Doctor had changed her appearance. She now wore a grey hooded coat in stead of blue, a black shirt with a rainbow along it, light-blue slacks with yellow suspenders, and dark brown hiking boots with equally blue socks. The look of a carefree, adventurous, traveler, but the clever spark of intellect beneath the blonde locks of hair remained. Considering what she saw of the Doctor's wardrobe while meandering the Tardis' halls, this was surprisingly tame.

 _The rainbow coat was weird enough, the scarf was nice, but who wears a vegetable?_

"Where and when exactly are we this time, Doc?" Max looked about and didn't find any weapons in the Tardis, which made sense with the Doctor's non-violent philosophy, but sometimes Max would give her left arm for a club.

"This planet doesn't have a real name," the Doctor said after she finished performing thirteen clicks on a dial before the Tardis' core settled fully. "Most cultures call it Dust, it varies on the translation but that is the meaning. Some consider the source of life, where all-natural material that helped create life in the universe originated. Spread out like dandelion seeds."

The Doctor strolled down to the lower deck of the Tardis and into a nearby hallway.

Max leaned against the railing and processed how much things had changed in her life that these concepts were now not just philosophical. She was now on the outskirts of reality. Max could ask the Doctor to drop them in the hospital room when she was born, maybe the day she married, and… her tombstone from wherever she's buried. The sum of her existence expressed in a few pulled levers. That made her pause for long moment. She heard the diatribe of how one's life might be ultimately insignificant except for rare chances when they're remembered for a time, but ease that the Doctor could skip through her life, through everyone's life, made staying in this box feel like being a visiting specter.

Was she really a companion, or just a livelier fossil from another age to study?

Max barely noticed the Doctor's return until she was handed a large brown pack. A similar one was draped over the Time Lord's shoulder.

"What's this?" Max said.

"It's a one-day trek trough the Dust for to our destination. The environments never really changed, but I'd rather be prepared." She then went over to the console and manipulated some mechanisms so that the Tardis had more security, probably because they'd be away for a bit.

The Doctor started to walk towards the doors to the Tardis. She paused and turned back towards Max.

"You ready to go?"

 _Does it actually matter to the universe if I do anything?_

"Max, you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, Doc," Max said as she strapped the bag over her shoulder. "Coming."

The Time Lord had promised that there'd be a deeper bond forged between them, and how this place would help with that. It seemed pointless to her, one day she'd either leave the Tardis or die when the adventure became too much. She still remembered the way the Shadow Skin tried to tear through her flesh, only for that weird sap she drank burned it away. Not everyone was an Undying Man, but Max would make damn sure not to be mourned by anyone. Realizing these happy thoughts would progress if she stayed behind in the Tardis, Max decided to try her luck and see if the Doctor had figured out some crazy way to make this companion role worthwhile.


	3. Trails Well Tred

The Doctor opened the door to the Tardis, the light blinded her for a second but she pulled out a pair of special sunglasses. They were a bit big on her new face, the sonic chime made her grin. Max staggered out of the entrance, closing the door behind her, blinded for a moment before the Doctor handed her a pair.

"What the heck are these?" Max said, twisting about until she realized that the sunglasses were making the strange sound.

"Sonic Specs," the Doctor said. "A fun tool from my last face. I wish I could find the guitar that went with them." The Time Lord quietly mourned her beloved instrument that she lost after falling out of the Tardis.

They looked about at the territory, the distant marble of a sun managed to create enough light to made the sand glisten like diamonds. It couldn't change the reality that they stood on grey dust where life once stood. A steady wind pushed the grains about and made the Doctor's coat ruffle in the breeze. Rolling mounds of dust rose and fell steadily, the effect made more intrinsic thanks to the glasses visually expressing it various colors of temperature to form a sea of spiraling rainbows.

"Hey, Doc, I'm seeing a few options on these things, something about 'Browser History'."

"Ah, yeah… used to really worry about that. Luckily, I cleared it out."

"Yeah… Doc, you ever heard of autofill?"

The Doctor only needed a second to process the word before she immediately snatched the glasses off Max's face. A quick burst of sonic energy and smoke seeped from them.

"Oh no, they broke." The Doctor droned before she tossed them back over her shoulder to Max. Her companion caught the glasses, and tenderly placed them back on.

"Right," Max said. "Well, you know the way. I guess. So, where to?"

The Doctor said nothing, she just started to walk forward. Max shuffled to keep up, the new shoes were phenomenal when it came to traversing terrain but her companion still wore sneakers. The Time Lord slowed down so that she could catch Max's arm before a nastier fall and the two moved forward as a conjoined pair.

Sand spilled down the steeper slopes in steady steams of grain with every step. The Doctor noticed fading indents in the landscape, some close up while others were more distanced. Anonymous trails of lost souls surrounded them and theirs too would join the Dust, created to fade and be forgotten with every shift of the sand in the wind.

"How do you know where to go, Doc?" Max said. "Every hill looks the same. But you don't do random, so where's our path?"

 _The pupil is learning well._

The Doctor looked about, they had reached a higher peak than most of the dunes, below was a massive bundle of hills like the ridges of a scaled beast.

"Through there," the Doctor said as she pointed straight towards a gap in the ridges. "It'll take us the rest of today to get down to the Hills of Memory, we're camping outside of that. Then we travel inside and make it to the destination on the other end, we can't stay within those hills when the sun sets."

"Why's that?"

A wind picked up from the Hills of Memory and flew up to meet them. Within the kick-up of dust, voices echoed around the Doctor's body. Some were voices of those she cherished, but others…

 _EXTERMINATE_

She hissed, flinching from the imagined blast of blazing radiation that never came. Max stepped forward to help in case the Doctor was about to fall over but the Time Lord held up a hand.

"Memory is always stronger at night, when it merges with dreams," the Doctor said in a hollow tone. "If you're not careful, those memories could consume you."

With that charming thought on both their minds, the two made a steady descent into a slight valley, leaving the present behind and marching straight into the past.


	4. Truth in Darkness

The sun descended faster than Max imagined a star could, it was like the orb just hopped off the ledge of the universe into dive. A dry blue sky turned deep magenta, stars became easier to see with each deeper shade. The atmosphere was different any other place Max saw, constellations radiated like diamonds, comets shooting by with blazing tales, and distant clusters of planets grouped together that could be seen even from millions of miles away. The idea that this might be the source of all life did seem slightly more possible considering the highlights above them. A curious thought occurred while the Doctor pulled out a glowing sphere that radiated warmth while floating off the ground in a bubble of heat.

"You told me this place 'might' be the source of all life in the universe, but you've never looked to be sure?"

"Nope," the Doctor said. "That possibility alone makes it suicide to dare try. The slightest ruffle to the history of existence, and life's extinguished before it even started. Some things are… just not worth finding."

"Like your grave."

The Doctor paused while she unfurled a blanket and sleeping bag, a chill filled the air but neither women paid it much mind.

"Yeah," the Doctor said after a moment. "Never a good thing to know too much about your future. It would sabotage possibly every decent thing that may come your way."

"Have you ever found yours?"

This time the Doctor took a long moment to stare out at the darkness before responding.

"Yes, I did. A group called the Silence tried to arrange my own fate to keep the Time Lords from returning. Didn't agree to die then, and my people managed to change the game. Gave more… a booster shot that let me continue on. And here I am, new cycle of regenerations, the second in a new line of Doctors." The camp was finished as she ended her explanation.

Max and the Doctor sat facing each other, the orb's light illuminated their bitterness.

"This was what was on your mind while on the Tardis. Nice to finally have it out in the open." Her tone expressed anything but relief.

"I've been stuck on a time machine for a 'month', Doc. The fact that it took me this long to get a bit of pathos scares me. Chasing that Doctor-Adventure high scrambles the brain. Do you count on that?"

The Doctor smiled half-heartedly.

"Actually, you picked up on it faster than most of my companions have. Some never tried to pay much attention to it."

"And what happened to the ones that stuck around too long?"

Her silence answered what she could never dare speak in words. Max closed her eyes, annoyed but not cruel enough to clearly ignore that the Doctor did care for those she traveled with. Leaning in, Max spoke after she knew what she really wanted to confront.

"What the Hell am I to you?" Max said. "I'm not as smart, strong, or capable of defeating alien armies like I'm playing with dominoes. But you seem to keep us around until we break or something breaks us. Sure, you get hit hard sometimes but you can bounce back. Do you just need someone to talk to so you don't go crazy?"

The Time Lord was the first to look down, shadows were cast over her features in the dim glow of their orb. She remembered those odd moments where a companion decided to act on their volition, to actively do something crazy. To finish a calculation on a ship set to explode, to reunite with a suddenly long-dead husband, and to face the raven in place of another. The deaths seemed pile up more now than the survivors. Her earliest companions most likely had passed away a long time ago, but with time being relative they could be dead for centuries or never born at all. When she had her 12th face, that sadness for how the Doctor must stand alone in the end almost compelled her to not move forward.

"Losing a companion is like losing a piece of my soul, Max," the Doctor said. "The first few times I got companions were accidental, acquiring people that are forced to join me on my travels, I didn't have much control of the Tardis back then. But eventually things changed, soon my companions and destination were both things I could decide on."

She looked up at Max with a sincere smile.

"I have nothing but respect for you trusting a madwoman in a box."

The young woman sighed as she leaned back on the blanket, looking up at the stars for a moment. Her eyes reflected their cosmic brilliance. When she turned her focus the Doctor again, the anger had subsided, slightly.

"I know you care about us, Doc, and you try to help everywhere you go. But why do this? You saved my life, but that was just random. You dive right into Hell and don't know if it's possible to claw back out. What made you… get involved?"

The Doctor had no way to tell how wide of a scope Max was talking about, and decided that the best way would be the beginning.

"It depends on when you ask me. Did I run away from Gallifrey's eldritch prophecies of doom, did I want to see if good could do more than survive in a universe that worships the triumph of evil, or did I want to help my granddaughter not lose faith in life by traveling with and then in honor of her? Could be all three or none of them, I've been at this for so long that sometimes I'm just traveling out of habit. I guess, the most honest way I describe it, is that I'm selfish. The universe cries out, knowing somethings wrong, and I decide to help stop the screaming. I interfered for so long, I've become a necessity to keep the universe in one piece even though that might mean breaking it sometimes."

"I think if it were a simple excuse, Max, I'd solve it and never travel again, but those screams… would haunt me forever."

That was just about everything she never dared to say out loud. The charm of Dust was how it never asked for anything but gladly embraced all the little secrets hidden away. Sand could never be affected by petty things like the sorrows of time, the penultimate time travelers because they would be all that's left when the universe mirrored everything that now surrounded them. But Max wasn't sand.

Her companion's face was now the one in shadow. She spoke her own truth out into the darkness as much as to the Doctor.

"I never knew my family, but there is one person on Jaret V my heart calls home. Candace Werrin, she's a librarian, involved with the archiving the various logs of people who visit our hub planet. When we first met, she asked me if I had clearance to be there in the docking bay on one of my trips spying on the travelers. I have No clue what exactly I rambled out in response, but it got me her number. You remind me of her, both blonde. We'd been together for four years, I was even thinking rings… but the one time Candace was away to chronicle some a diplomat's arrival, the Sponsors took me."

Max's form shuddered with emotions she'd rather be only slightly seen in the dark.

"They would have killed her, something about 'compromising the product', so her demanding to talk to me would mean death. They let me send a message, monitored to make sure nothing slipped, and so I expressed to Candace how I would sorely miss our reading sessions."

Max allowed her face to be seen, tears refracting light.

"I hate reading, and she knew it. Candace had a way of knowing what I meant even if I never said the words. She stopped messaging, mixed blessing because that I also meant I had no clue whether they simply didn't kill when I wasn't looking… 'dealing with uncertain variables'. I'm scared to come home because it might be empty. Worse, because of what it took to keep off the chopping block in the Rift Games, I don't want Candace to not… see the woman who loves her in those eyes."

"I guess," Max said with sad smile. "We all run from something."

The Doctor listened to it all, not saying a word. She closed the distance and embraced her friend. Max made not attempt to reject the offer, but soon wrapped her own arms around the Doctor.

"Say the word, and I take you home." The Doctor said.

"R-Really?"

"The second we left, like nothing happened. My offer stands whenever you need it. This… is nothing you need to worry about. The past… never really going anywhere. That's My mixed blessing, but it never needs to be yours, Max."

The Doctor and her companion held each other for a long time, making amends all the unseen pains they both endured. They eventually pulled apart, the Doctor was surprised when she processed the time and concluded that barely an hour passed. Some things had way of taking only as much time as it needed, the Time Lord thought.

"Thanks, Doc," Max said. "I might take up that offer, but only after we finish this tomorrow. It'd be a bit embarrassing to come to a new planet and have the only highlight be crying in the dark."

The Doctor and Max laughed a little, relieved to find some form of peace. There was still the Hills of Memory, but the Time Lord wasn't too concerned. In fact, once they got past that madness, she'd be able to share a rare secret, hidden from all the universe.

The Legacy of the Doctor.


	5. Beware And Remember The Past

As the sun broke off from the horizon, the Doctor and Max finished putting away their camp. Twenty feet away was a gap where no light seemed capable of entering. The Hills of memory, where the sand had condensed until they became solid walls. Max tapped at it and could have mistaken it for stone. She awkwardly looked at Doctor, wondering if she had disrespected an alien relic.

"Don't worry, Max, you couldn't do anything near the damage the Hills of Memory are capable of."

Max stepped back, as if the stone would come alive and eat her.

"What exactly is in there?" She heard the crunch of metal on sand, which should have been impossible, but nothing came through.

The Doctor stepped up beside Max, adjusting the straps on her pack.

"The burdens we carry."

Those were the only words the Doctor gave Max before she stepped into the gap and out of sight. The air shifted, as if the planet had sucked up her friend. That made her less willing to follow, but she couldn't exactly leave her ride home, or anywhere, in the lurch.

The temperature dropped by at least forty degrees the second Max entered the shade. With every step, the sand clawed up and she had to kick to keep herself moving. She could no longer hear the wind, even though it was a few feet behind her. Even the smell of the burning sand similar to walking on a beach had faded, replaced an older aroma that could be found museums. This place reeked of the past.

 **MAX….**

Max spun around, the figure was slightly concealed in shadow, but she recognized the hat and sparkling grin.

 **Y-You've missed practice for awhile M-Max, a captain must set a better example**

"No," Max stepped backwards, the crunch of metal feet in on stone shouldn't be real. "You're dead, I-I stopped you."

Now she could really see him, the hat and copper grin cackling with electricity.

 **Max, you know the show must go on. Do we need to call Candace?**

Anger boiled up in Max, it made it easier to see that there wasn't anything but piles of sand. She visited a beach once, saw sand castles sculpted with bots that created makeshift replicas of a Los Angeles, New York City, and London in a matter of minutes. She'd seen them torn down a quick, built up but easily forgotten. Their shape was not reality.

"You're not real," Max said as she clenched her hands into fists. More of the Sponsors appeared. "YOU ARE NOT REAAALLL!"

She screamed and slammed her fists into them as they approached. They crumbled to nothing with every hit, but it wasn't enough. It never could be. The Sponsor's chuckle was everywhere, in her mind as much as in her ears no matter how many of them she smashed. Mounds of sands formed around her legs, piling up to her legs and higher with every hit.

Two strong hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled.

Max was yanked out of the sand, flaying about before she managed to realize who held her.

"Max, Max! It's okay, I'm here. You're safe."

Max turned to look at her friend, sweat beading on her head and she was out of breath. The piles of sand seeped into the stone floor even though there weren't any gaps or holes. The Doctor helped get Max back on her feet when she could stand.

"Are you able to stand?"

"Yeah," Max said while nodding. "Thanks, Doc. What was that?"

"Memory," the Doctor said. "This place personifies your fears and darker horrors hidden away. They hunger to have their victims consumed in the sorrow of the past."

"How do you fight that?" Max shuddered, wondering what other horrors she may have forgotten about.

"Trying to fight the past is admitting that it still owns you," the Doctor said. "The only way to make peace with it is to dare move forward, devils and all."

"Easier said than done, Doc."

"Never is, Max," the Doctor said. "Everyone's past has teeth."

The two of them walked on through various gaps, Max never considered looking up to get their bearings. Darkness surrounded them, deeper shades whispered words that did not understand, with strange shapes that Max didn't recognize.

A strange metal dome with knobs sticking out of it came forward, Its burning blue eye made Max's heart run still.

 _YOU ARE THE DOCTOR! YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!_

Green light burst from one stem of limb, it hummed with death. The beam struck them, faded, but the heat… felt so real. This was clearly not a Dalek, the thing broke apart into sand.

"T-That's a Dalek," Max said. "Wow, they really hate you."

"They hate everything, I just happen to have that special place in their little mutant squid hearts forever."

"What for?"

"Take it from a Time Lord, there's _really_ no amount of time in the world to count the ways."

Max took the Doctor's word for it. But other horrors started to come forward. The Doctor them listed off as they walked by; Cybermen demanding deletion, a bearded fiend named The Master who the Doctor called… a friend… and a lousy swordfighter, and the mantis-like race called the Metatraxi who she made an eternal enemy of after manipulating their translators to make them sound like California Surfer Dudes which was 'Totally Bogus' (they both laughed at the last one). 2000 years of travel clearly made the Doctor have a constantly number of enemies, the weird statues were a disturbing to see, especially when they seemed to be following them when they looked away. So much chaos directed at the universe, Max never realized how many forces sought to eradicate everything. And in front of her was the woman who had faced these monsters, wearing many different faces and using all kinds of tricks, the evils of the universe were stopped.

 _But what am I in that equation, moral support?_

"Still doubting your value in this, Max?"

Max guessed the nature of the place made it possible that her thoughts were literally written on the walls. The Time Lord gave her a reassuring smile.

"Every victory I've ever had against the cruel desires of those we're walking, I had help. The bravest, kindest, and noblest souls I've ever known, a lot like you and I prove that. In fact, memory isn't always a bad thing."

With those words the Doctor closed her eyes, and the sand took on new forms. Max looked around and saw them surrounded by men and women from all walks of life. They looked like travelers, teachers, explorers, warriors, troublemakers, and even a robotic dog were among those who had worked alongside the Doctor.

Then she saw the twelve men in front of what she assumed was the main exit. Max had seen reflections of them in a strange mirror on the Joy Star. They mostly older men, except for the odd one with the bow tie, but when the Time Lord turned to face her she saw something unique about them. A clever grin that radiated in the universe no matter the face.

"Wherever and whenever someone seeks to misbehave, I respond to that chaos and with the help of good friends the universe stands because we choose to intervene. I am the Doctor, Time Lord of Gallifrey, and we are here to help."

She held out her hand to Max, the young woman only had to wait a moment before taking it. All the sand faded and light from outside entered the enclosed cavern. Whatever aura of madness surrounded the place had faded.

"Okay, so what next?"

The Doctor grinned as they stepped towards the light.

"My legacy."


	6. Names In the Sand (Epilogue)

The blinding light was practically a godsend for the Doctor. Even with the glasses, she had to squint in order to see the path ahead, but it was well-tread and would stay with her to her true-death one day. Of course, Max clearly saw nothing but a clear horizon with no discernable marks. Also, the entrance to the Hills of Memory had closed up behind them, into a miles-long stretch of stone wall no one could get past.

"I'm assuming the game plan isn't us becoming dried up corpses in the desert, Doc," Max said. "What are we doing here?"

The Doctor smiled and stepped forward. She heard Max move forward behind her. After a hundred stops they stopped. Max stumbled from the sudden halt but the Doctor helped her. They looked down at the writing.

 **1** **st** **Doctor**

Susan Foreman

Ian Chesterton

Barbara Wright

Vicki

Steven Taylor

Katarina

Sara Kingdom

Dodo Chaplet

Polly

Ben Jackson

The Doctor knelt down beside the names for a moment. Max followed her example and they stayed that.

"I stumbled upon this place in my 1st incarnation, a slight trip to get used to idea of traveling. In my second incarnation, I understood the importance of this place, for me."

They stood up and proceeded further down the path. A hundred more steps and they came across a similar marker for the 2nd Doctor and those who traveled with him.

"One day, the trail will end." They stood and made their way to third Doctor's memorial.

"All my successes are moot, what matters in the end the friends I made and how they helped me face the horrors of the universe with every incarnation. In the end, a few names carved in the sand is all that is needed to keep moving. For me at least."

She remembered every conversation with the brave souls that joined her journey through time and space. They had argued, joked, played chess, read, celebrate the holidays, and partied in the pool occasionally. More than companions, the Doctor had made a family, and no matter how long or short the time together those friends were worth more than anything that the universe ever offered. At last they came to the 12th marker. Beside the name was stick, thin, sturdy, and pointed at one end. With a sigh, the Doctor picked up the tool and started adding to it.

 **The 12** **th** **Doctor**

Clara Oswald

Bill Potts

Nardole

The Ghost

River Song

"These are the ones you traveled with in your last incarnation." Max concluded.

"My dear friends, a superhero I made, and… my wife."

Max looked at the Doctor as if seeing her in a new light.

"Had the ring to prove it, but I needed to move on. I'll always love River Song but… I can't get lost dancing with ghosts, not if I want to honor her properly."

"Time moves on, and so will I."

The Doctor and her companion walked a hundred more steps, arriving at an empty patch of sand. Max stepped to the side, to give her more space to work with. She nodded, grateful, and raised the stick.

"Laugh Hard. Run Fast. Be Kind." The Doctor said the words quietly to herself.

"What is that?" Max said. The Time Lord wondered how she must look, sometimes it was hard to tell.

"A bit of advice I got while talking to myself," the Doctor as she stabbed into the sand. "Something to hold onto moving forward."

 **The 13** **th** **Doctor**

The marking of the name established a personal promise to live onto the next incarnation, and return here to honor those who traveled beside her during this incarnation. She grinned, handing the stick to Max.

"Your turn."

"W-What?"

"I'm really glad you decided to see this through, otherwise it would have been quite awkward bringing you along."

Max gripped the stick as if it would burst into flames. The history behind it could be overwhelming but the Doctor had an idea that could help. She took a step and grabbed onto the stick as well.

"This is my new start, Max, and the companions deserve to make their mark. You saved a species from genocide and fought a slightly more demonic sport franchise; you've earned this, Max Lin."

The young woman looked down at the tool with a greater recognition of its value. She moved around the Doctor, never at the mercy of fear for too long, and stabbed down next to the Time Lord's mark.

 **Max Lin**

For a moment, the whole universe felt like it centered around that moment. Doctor and Companion, a deeper bond formed. Max handed the Doctor back the stick and she gently placed it on the sand between their two names. A hummed entered their ears and the Tardis materialized several feet away. The ritual was complete.

The two entered the ship with a snap of the Doctor's fingers. Once inside the Tardis it started up and they were off in the fringe of time and space, waiting for a new destination. Or perhaps, the destination was settled and the Doctor just needed to see if Max was ready to go home.

"Say the word, and we're back in Jaret V with a second to spare."

Max nodded, eyeing the door as if she could hear her home out on the other end. Charms of being a Time Lord gave the Doctor a great deal of patience. They waited in a tense silence that ended with Max's words.

"Ramification Nightmares, those psychos took me from my home. They knew about Candace. Is it possible that they could go after her, because I helped you hurt their operations?"

The Doctor had worked hard to not lie when it came to her friends, but the truth might condemn them both. If it did, then they would face those devils together.

"Yes," the Doctor said. "This group, they seem capable of time travel, otherwise there's no real way to make sense of how they manipulate sudden businesses into becoming tools for death. Someone is trying to get my attention, Max, and the longer they're ignored the damage to time will become more extensive."

Max nodded and then looked at the Doctor with calm determination that must have been that helmet every time before match in the Rift games.

"Then let's not give them the chance, Doc," Max said. "We got work to do."

The Doctor smiled, she wished to say this might be easy, but nothing ever was. However, the names in the sand proved the hardest times can be faced, with friends.

"Right," the Doctor said as they walked over to the console. "Let's get to work, partner."

And with that, the Tardis was on the move seek the devils at the center of this insanity, and bring peace to both their lives and the universe by their actions. With a determined chime of the Tardis' core, they charged forward into darkness.


End file.
